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TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft's interactive TV launch
takes aim at couch potato market
The interactive software, to be launched this week in Portugal, lets viewersdo such things as place bets, shop, get e-mail, play games and bank via a set-top box. Portugal's TV Cabo will be the first cable network in the world tooffer the Microsoft product on a high-speed digital system. It'll cost $8.50 to $13 a month. Some analysts forecast explosive growth in the interactive TV market.
Microsoft's features target AOL
The test version of Windows XP greatly boosts instant-messaging software to provide text, chat, video, audio and phone services. The Windows Messenger software is Microsoft's effort to bundle other communication technologies with instant messaging and overtake AOL Time Warner's messaging service. Bundling isthe core of the antitrust case against Microsoft. The move comes as Microsoft and AOL are in difficult talks over a range of licensing and legal issues.
Microsoft would welcome closer ties with Nokia, said CEO Steve Ballmer. The wireless giant said it wasn't aware of any meetings with Ballmer during his brief visit to Finland.